


The Splinter In Your Eye

by AtomicPen



Series: That's One Thing We've Got [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Inquisitor as Companion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 18:51:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4846478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtomicPen/pseuds/AtomicPen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She thought she'd live out her days tilting and helping horses and yelling at their masters. She never dreamt she'd get entangled so thoroughly in a group intent on restoring order to the entire world.</p><p>Nor find it so fulfilling.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>series of ficlets of Lywc Nancevel, the Companion counterpart to Inquisitor.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Splinter In Your Eye

Mare’s blood, that’s what it was called where she came from.

Lywc reached out and brushed her fingers against the drooping red flowers. The plant was only a couple years old, standing but a few feet tall. The blooms of its flowers were just as bright a red as she remembered, even as far south as this. She frowned.

“Never took you for a flower person.”

Lywc didn’t look over her shoulder, standing and adjusting her belt. “I’m not,” she replied. “Just… surprised to find this here.” She kept her eyes on the flower as she moved, unsure how to take her unexpected visitor.

Finally, she turned to face the Commander of the Inquisition, who stood fewer paces away than she had thought, his thumbs hooked onto his sword belt. One corner of his mouth threatened to turn upwards into a smile, but it wasn’t quite there yet.

Cullen’s eyebrows canted to one another a bit as he glanced past her at the blooming shrub. “Spirit candles, right?” He glanced over to her for confirmation.

“I—I’m not sure what you call them here in the south,” she answered, feeling awkward around him. She made herself stand still, as if she were working with a flighty yearling, except she was the one that felt skittish. “But I know them as mare’s blood.”

His face relaxed and a single eyebrow arched, though his honey-brown eyes held more amusement than anything else. “That’s a violent name for a flower,” he commented.

“Suited, though—the seeds are poisonous,” she explained. “An animal eats them, they start heaving blood not too long after. Smaller animals, it kills, but larger ones can survive if they get them all out.”

The amusement didn’t fade, despite the morbidity of the topic. “In the winter, the pods get so brittle and hollow they rattle. Sounds unsettling in the quiet of chill air. Like they were warning no one to come near them, it always seemed to me.” His eyes held hers when he spoke, his gaze never drifting to the side at the plant they discussed.

A shallow line creased her brow, trying to figure out what he was getting at, why he was here, having this conversation with her. Shouldn’t he be more interested in tactics, or the other Advisors, or the Inquisitor, or—well, anyone other than some Marcher who spent too much of her time in a dusty training ring? To talk about something as odd and inconsequential as the habits of flowers in their different seasons? She shifted awkwardly.

“Inquisitor finally allow you out of that tower you’re always in?” she settled on saying. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, however, she regretted them. She sounded as if she didn’t want him here, as if she regretted him butting into her inspection of the flora of Skyhold that had decided to grow just outside the area she’d chosen to train horses and their riders. Rattled just like the poisonous seeds.

Cullen’s face fell into a neutral line, and he studied her for a moment before answering. “Should I let you get back to the flowers?”

Void. He had taken it exactly how she feared she sounded, and she winced a little, casting her eyes to the ground first, then up to the sky as she felt heat creep over her cheekbones. “Ah—no. Sorry, I…” Lywc let out a breath and found herself looking everywhere except at his face. “I only meant that it seems you work too much,” she finished lamely, speaking to his boots.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said suddenly, surprising her and drawing her eyes up to his face again. This time he was the one shifting awkwardly, lifting a hand to run fingers across the back of his head. “For—for being there. Supporting. With the lyrium, I mean.”

She felt her chest relax and her cheeks cool a little. “Of course,” she told him without hesitation. “It was the only thing to do.”

Lywc watched his face fall a little, and suddenly grew worried. “Yes,” he said. “Of course. Would have done the same for anyone in the Inquisition, I imagine.”

Her eyes flicked across his features, trying to read them, trying to discern what she said that had upset him. “I would have, but…” Lywc ran her tongue along the points of her teeth the same way seneschals tended to walk ruts into rugs. She was no good at talking about things like this. “For you I would have helped—would help, however I can. I don’t—” She suddenly felt a dull throb behind her right eye, but ignored it. It wasn’t the kind to be worried about, and the slight flash of pain that was left in its wake faded quickly. “I’ve had bad luck with lyrium in the past—” That made his eyes meet hers again, and she saw the question behind them, but didn’t elaborate and he didn’t push for it— “but if you needed anything, you have but to ask.”

The corner of his mouth did curve up in a smile this time, dragging the scar above his lip along with it. She liked his smile. “Thank you, truly,” he said, voice soft.

A breath of silence fell over them, both standing awkwardly an arm’s width away from one another, until she drew in a breath to speak, just as he was doing the same. He motioned for her to speak first. A wry smile tugged at her mouth.

“Will the Inquisitor think I’m kidnapping you if we go for a ride outside Skyhold for a bit?”

His smile widened. “Is it kidnapping if I come willingly?”


End file.
